Eye on Extremism

June 12, 2023 

Associated Press: Extremists Attack Beachside Hotel In Somalia’s Capital As Al-Shabab Claims Responsibility

“Witnesses and state media in Somalia say extremists have attacked a beachside hotel in the capital, Mogadishu, and security forces are responding at the site as some people remain trapped inside. The Somali National News Agency reports that ‘many civilians’ have been rescued from the Pearl Beach hotel as fighting continues Friday night. There is no immediate word on any deaths. Al-Qaida’s East Africa affiliate, al-Shabab, has claimed responsibility for the attack. The Somalia-based extremist group is known for carrying out attacks on hotels and other high-profile locations in Mogadishu, usually starting with a suicide bombing.”

Dawn: UN Report Finds ‘Strong And Symbiotic’ Links Between Afghan Taliban, TTP

“The fourteenth report of the Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team of the UN Security Council’s 1988 Taliban Sanctions Committee — released on Friday — noted that a ‘range of terrorist groups has greater freedom of manoeuvre under the Taliban de facto authorities’. ‘They are making good use of this, and the threat of terrorism is rising in both Afghanistan and the region,’ the report read, a copy of which is available with Dawn.com. ‘While they have sought to reduce the profile of these groups and conducted maintaining links to numerous terrorist entities, the Taliban have lobbied member states for counter-terrorism assistance in its fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant – Khorasan Province (ISIL-K), which it perceives as its principal rival.’ The report said that the Taliban forces have conducted operations against ISIL-K, in general, but they have not delivered on the counter-terrorism provisions under the Agreement for Bringing Peace to Afghanistan between the United States of America and the Taliban.”

CEP Expert Analysis

• Civilian Counterterrorism Forces and the Fight Against Extremism: A Review of Nigeria, Somalia, and Burkina Faso
• Extremism in Erdogan's AKP
• Security Risks Emanating From Afghanistan 
• Unsolved Murders In Syria's Badia 
• Transnational Linkages Between Violent Right-Wing Extremism, Terrorism and Organized Crime

United States

Daily Mail: Notorious Domestic Terrorist Theodore 'Ted' Kaczynski - The 'Unabomber' - Is Found Dead In North Carolina Federal Prison Cell Aged 81

“Notorious domestic terrorist Ted Kaczynski, also known as the 'Unabomber', has died aged 81 in federal prison, a spokesperson for the Bureau of Prisons said Saturday. Kaczynski was found dead in his cell at around 8 a.m. in a North Carolina federal prison. A cause of death has not been released. After shooting to infamy by executing 16 bombings over a 17-year reign of terror, Kaczynski was given life without the possibility of parole when he was finally caught in 1996. Kaczynski was captured after a years-long manhunt tracked him to a primitive cabin in western Montana woodland, where he built the explosives he used to kill three people and injure 23 others between 1978 and 1995. He had been moved to the federal prison medical facility in North Carolina after spending two decades in a federal Supermax prison in Colorado.”

Syria

Reuters: Syria's Kurds To Begin Trials For IS Detainees

“The Kurdish-led administration in northeast Syria said it would begin trying thousands of suspected foreign Islamic State fighters who have been its custody for years, surprising diplomats working on the issue and prompting concern about due process. The U.S.-backed autonomous administration, which operates separately from the central government in Damascus, holds around 10,000 suspected IS detainees who fled the last bastions held by the militant Islamist group in Syria from 2017-2019. Local officials have for years called on foreign countries - including Canada, France, the United Kingdom and others - to repatriate their nationals as well as the thousands of foreign women and children who fled IS’s self-declared ‘caliphate’ and are in detention camps. On Saturday, the Kurdish-led administration said in an online statement that it had decided to submit detainees to its own ‘open, free and transparent trials’ following the international community’s lagging response.”

Iraq

Associated Press: IS Militants Kill 2 Iraqi Soldiers, Wound 3 Others In Northern Iraq, Officials Say

“Islamic State group militants attacked an Iraqi army position in the northern governorate of Kirkuk, killing two military officers and wounding three soldiers, Iraq’s security media office said in a statement Sunday. The Iraqi Security Media Cell said militants belonging to the extremist group late Saturday targeted the military position in the district of Dibis with light and medium weapons but did not provide further details. The statement said that Iraqi authorities held a meeting to investigate the attack. IS, in a late Saturday statement, claimed responsibility for the attack on their website.”

Afghanistan

Reuters: Islamic State Claims Responsibility For Afghanistan Mosque Blast

“Islamic State on Friday claimed responsibility for an explosion inside a mosque in northern Afghanistan the day before, the militant group said in a statement. The blast inside a mosque in northern Afghanistan on Thursday killed at least 11 people during the funeral of the Taliban's provincial deputy governor, who died in an attack earlier this week, officials said.”

Voice Of America News: IS-K Leader In Afghanistan Reported Dead

“The leader of a regional affiliate of the Islamic State terrorist outfit was reportedly killed in Afghanistan this week in an area along the border with Pakistan, intelligence officials in both countries confirmed to VOA. Sanaullah Ghafari, the so-called slain emir of Islamic State Khorasan, or IS-K, has led the terrorist group since June 2020. He was widely known as Shahab al-Muhajir and was said to be in his late 30s. Ghafari was traveling through the mountainous province of Kunar late Tuesday when Taliban security forces targeted him in an intelligence-led operation. Six other IS-K operatives were killed in subsequent raids in the area, Taliban sources said without sharing further details.”

Yemen

Associated Press: In Yemen, 3 Killed In Clashes Between Suspected Al-Qaida Militants And Pro-Government Forces

“Clashes between suspected al-Qaida militants and Yemen’s pro-government forces in the country’s south killed three men Saturday, a military official and tribal leaders said. The fighting broke out Saturday evening when militants thought to be al-Qaida members attacked the United Arab Emirates-backed Shabwa Defense Forces near the town of al-Musnaiya in southern Shabwa province with machine guns, two tribal leaders and a military official said. The three spoke on condition of anonymity. They said the gunbattle in the oil-rich province lasted for several hours, killing two Shabwa Defense Forces fighters and one militant before the militants finally withdrew. Yemen’s ruinous civil war began in 2014 when the Iran-backed Houthi rebels seized the capital of Sanaa and much of northern Yemen and forced the government into exile.”

Middle East

The National: Three Pakistani Soldiers Killed In Gun Battle With Taliban

“Three Pakistani soldiers were killed in a gun battle with Taliban militants near the Afghan-Pakistan border on Saturday, the latest violent incident in the restive, semi-mountainous frontier region. Pakistan’s army has been battling an escalating number of attacks from Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan or the Pakistani Taliban (TTP), as well as an insurgency by separatist Balochs. Six soldiers were killed last month in the same area. Analysts say the TTP has benefitted from a large influx of US-made weaponry that was abandoned by the Afghan army when their forces collapsed in August 2021, leading the Taliban to take over the country. A months-long ceasefire between the government and the militants expired in November and levels of violence have risen steadily since.”

Daily Sabah: PKK Militant Trying To Cross Into Türkiye From Syria Nabbed

“Türkiye’s National Intelligence Organization (MIT) aided Syrian opposition forces in capturing a member of the PKK terrorist group's Syrian wing, the YPG, as she was trying to infiltrate Türkiye, security sources said on Friday. MIT discovered that Helin Işenme, also known under several aliases, including Amara Amed and Sena, who was part of the terrorist group’s ‘intelligence network’ in Syria’s Manbij, was planning to cross into Türkiye from Syria’s north. Acting upon intelligence, Syrian opposition forces detained Işenme. She was handed over to Turkish authorities. Işenme, who joined the terrorist group in 2016, had an outstanding arrest warrant issued by a court in the southeastern Turkish province of Diyarbakır in 2017.”

Jewish News Syndicate: Former IDF Chief: Israel Killed Hundreds Of ISIS Terrorists

“Israeli lawmaker and former military chief Gadi Eisenkot revealed on Sunday that the Israel Defense Forces conducted external operations against Islamic State in 2015. ‘ISIS knows best how frequently the IDF acted in the Middle East, and they paid a price in hundreds of killed and injured,’ Eisenkot said at an Institute for National Security Studies conference in Tel Aviv. The National Unity Party Knesset member said that Jerusalem was asked to act against ISIS by an unspecified third party, but did not elaborate. He also did not reveal where any of the activity took place, saying only that it spanned ‘many more than one country.’”

Somalia

Al Arabiya: Twenty-Two Killed In Ordnance Blast In Somalia

“Twenty-two people, including two children, died in southern Somalia when mortar shells exploded, a local district official said on Friday. Abdi Ahmed Ali told a press conference that a blast ‘caused by unexploded mortar shells’ occurred near the town of Qoryoley, around 120 kilometers (75 miles) south of the capital, Mogadishu. He requested help from the authorities to clear unexploded ordnance he said was scattered across the region in order to avoid further disasters. Qoryoley resident Ibrahim Hassan told AFP most of the victims were ‘young children’ who ‘died on the spot after one of them struck an explosive device near a playground.’”

Anadolu Agency: At Least 19 Al-Shabaab Terrorists Killed In Security Operation In Somalia

“At least 19 members of the al-Shabaab terrorist group were killed on Sunday in a joint operation led by Somalia’s National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA) in the country’s Lower Shabelle region, officials said. The operation, which took place in Bula-Mohamed-Abdalla village on the outskirts Awdheegle, was conducted with the support of some of Somalia’s international partners working with the country on the security front, according Ahmed Abdiwahid, a security official in the region who spoke by phone to Anadolu. Awdheegle is a strategic agricultural town located 84 kilometers (52 miles) west of the capital Mogadishu. Vehicles and weapons belonging to al-Shabaab were also destroyed in the operation, according to the security official. Lower Shabelle saw one of the deadliest attacks by al-Shabaab on a base of the African Union Transition Mission forces late last month.”

Mali

Reuters: One U.N. Peacekeeper Killed And Four Injured In North Mali Attack

“At least one United Nations peacekeeper was killed and four others seriously injured when their patrol was attacked in northern Mali on Friday, the peacekeeping mission MINUSMA said. The incident took place near the town of Ber, in the region of Tombouctou - an area that has become a hotbed of jihadist activity over the past decade. MINUSMA said on Twitter the patrol first encountered an improvised explosive device and was then hit with a direct fire attack. It did not name perpetrators but said it was a ‘complex attack’ and that updates on casualties would follow.”

United Kingdom

Arab News: UK Commits To Anti-Daesh Funding At Saudi Meeting

“The UK’s minister for the Middle East attended the Saudi-hosted Global Coalition Against Daesh ministerial-level meeting in Riyadh on June 8, and pledged funding for anti-terrorism and humanitarian efforts in Iraq and Syria. Lord Ahmad, minister of state for the Middle East, North Africa, South Asia and UN, also highlighted the UK’s commitment to the coalition’s strategy of returning and reintegrating Iraqis displaced by Daesh violence. The 86-member coalition met in Riyadh at the invitation of Saudi Minister of Foreign Affairs Prince Faisal bin Farhan. Following the collapse of Daesh, the coalition’s efforts are now aimed at reintegrating internally displaced people through job training and anti-extremism drives, as well as meeting humanitarian challenges in Syria through direct funding.”

France

The National: France Stabbing: Macron Visits Child Victims Of 'Cowardly' Attack That Shocked France

“…Speaking to The National, Sofia Koller, senior research analyst at the Counter Extremism Project, said: ‘The motivation is not clear yet. ‘Some media and parts of the public are quick to judge when they see it was a foreign-looking man with a knife, and assume it was a terror attack.’ There are continuing debates and discussions in France and Europe on asylum seekers and immigration, Ms Koller said, speaking from Germany. ‘So I think this attack really comes at the worst timing because the debate is quite present at the moment. So this attack might have an even higher impact on French society,’ she said.”

Europe

The National: Sweden Charges Turkish Citizen With Financing Outlawed Kurdish Militant Group

“Swedish prosecutors on Friday charged a Turkish citizen with gun crimes and raising money for the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). Sweden's prosecution authority said it was the first time anyone had been charged with attempting to provide financing to the PKK, which has been designated as a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the EU and the US. The man, who has not been named, is suspected of aggravated extortion, serious gun crime and attempting to fund terrorism. The indictment says that the man was part of a significant network focused on amassing funds for the PKK and that he was connected with another Turkish citizen who had been jailed in Germany for being a member of the militant group.”

India

Dawn: Punjab CTD Arrests Nine Militants Of Banned Outfits

“According to the spokesman, the Punjab CTD conducted 46 intelligence-based operations in different districts of the province to effectively deal with any untoward incident of terrorism, in which 47 suspected persons were interrogated and nine alleged terrorists were arrested with weapons, explosives and other prohibited materials. The arrested terrorists include six members of the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan Atiq Ahmed, Rashid Khan, Muhammad Riaz, Muhammad Siddique Khan, Muhammad Shoaib and Zahid Khan; two members of al-Qaeda Muhammad Raheeq and Kashif Usmani; and one member of the Lashkar-i-Jhangvi Maqsood Ahmed. The spokesman said 1.328kg of explosives, 10 detonators, 17 feet of protective fuse wire, six prohibited books, 11 prohibited magazines, 56 pamphlets of the banned organisation, 100 stickers, five receipt boxes and Rs41,170 in cash had been recovered from the possession of these terrorists.”

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